Schafkopf

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Trumps and card order
4. Setup
5. Bidding: who plays?
6. The Sauspiel: call an Ace
7. Solo and Wenz
8. Playing a trick
9. Scoring
10. Winning the game
11. Tips for beginners
12. Variants

Overview

Schafkopf is the classic card game of Bavaria, played by four at the kitchen table and in the pub. It is a trick-taking game: each player plays one card, and the highest card wins all four – together they form a trick. The cards in your tricks are worth card points. In every hand one player, the declarer, chooses a game: either together with a secret partner (the Sauspiel) or alone against the other three (a Solo or Wenz). The declarer's side needs 61 of the 120 card points to win.

• Players: exactly 4. Partnerships change from hand to hand.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, and coins or paper and pencil for scoring.

The cards

Take out the 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K and A of every suit – 32 cards. The 2s to 6s are not used.

Card points:

All cards together are worth 120 card points.

Trumps and card order

Trumps are special cards that beat every non-trump card. In Schafkopf the trumps are not just one suit: the Queens and Jacks are always trumps (except in a Wenz, see below), whatever their suit. In the normal game – the Sauspiel – the Hearts are trumps as well. That makes 14 trumps, from highest to lowest:

1. Q♣ Q♠ Q♥ Q♦
2. J♣ J♠ J♥ J♦
3. A♥ 10♥ K♥ 9♥ 8♥ 7♥

The other three suits (♣ ♠ ♦) are plain suits. Each has only six cards left, ranking A 10 K 9 8 7 – note that the 10 ranks above the King.

Important: a Queen or Jack belongs to the trumps, not to its suit. The J♠ is a trump, not a spade.

Setup

1. Dealer: pick the first dealer at random; afterwards the deal passes to the left.
2. The dealer shuffles, the player on the right cuts, and the dealer deals 4 cards to each player, then another 4 – everyone has 8 cards.
3. The player to the dealer's left is called forehand. Forehand speaks first in the bidding and leads to the first trick.

Bidding: who plays?

Starting with forehand and going clockwise, each player says whether they want to play:

• "I'd play" – you want to be declarer, or
• "Pass" (in German: "Weiter").

You don't name your game yet. If two or more players want to play, the higher game wins (see the list below). With games of equal rank, the player who spoke earlier wins. Only then does the winner announce the exact game.

The games, from low to high:

1. Sauspiel (Rufspiel with an Ace)
2. Wenz
3. Solo
4. Wenz-Tout
5. Solo-Tout
6. Sie

If everyone passes, the cards are thrown in and the next dealer deals (or you play a Ramsch, see Variants).

The Sauspiel: call an Ace

The Sauspiel is the normal game. Its name comes from the Bavarian word for Ace; think of it as a Rufspiel with an Ace ("calling game"). The declarer names the Ace of a plain suit – ♣, ♠ or ♦, never A♥, which is a trump – for example "I play with the Ace of Spades". Whoever holds that Ace is the declarer's partner. The partner must not reveal it: everyone finds out only when the called Ace is played.

You may only call an Ace that you don't hold yourself, and you must hold at least one card of that suit (a plain card – Queens and Jacks don't count). If you hold all three plain-suit Aces, you can't play a Sauspiel.

Example: You hold Q♣ Q♥ J♠ J♦ A♥ 10♥ 9♠ 7♦ – six trumps and two plain cards. You may call the A♠ (you have the 9♠) or the A♦ (you have the 7♦), but not the A♣, because you have no clubs.

Rules for the called suit:

• When the called suit is led for the first time, the partner must play the called Ace – even if a trump is already in the trick.
• The partner may not discard the called Ace on another suit. If the called suit is never led, the Ace is played in the last trick.
• The partner may only lead a different card of the called suit if they hold four or more cards of it (Ace included). This is called running away (davonlaufen). After that, the Ace may be played freely.

The declarer and partner together need 61 card points; the other two need 60.

Solo and Wenz

In both games the declarer plays alone against three. The three defenders form a team and may put their tricks on one pile.

• Solo: the declarer picks a suit that replaces Hearts as trumps – "Club Solo", "Heart Solo" and so on. Trumps are the four Queens, the four Jacks and then A 10 K 9 8 7 of the chosen suit. Hearts become a plain suit if another suit is chosen.
• Wenz: only the four Jacks are trumps (J♣ J♠ J♥ J♦). The Queens return to their suits, which rank A 10 K Q 9 8 7. There is no trump suit.
• Tout: a Solo or Wenz in which the declarer announces, before the first card is played, to win all 8 tricks. It counts double but is lost as soon as the defenders win one trick.
• Sie: a player dealt all four Queens and all four Jacks wins at once without playing.

Playing a trick

Forehand leads any card. Then, clockwise, everyone plays one card:

• Follow suit: if a plain suit is led, you must play a card of that suit if you can. If a trump is led, you must play a trump if you can.
• If you can't follow, you may play any card: a trump to win the trick, or any other card. There is no obligation to trump and no obligation to beat.

The highest trump wins the trick. If there is no trump in it, the highest card of the led suit wins. The winner takes the trick face down and leads to the next one.

Example: Sauspiel, Hearts are trumps. Anna leads K♣. Ben plays A♣. Clara has no clubs and plays J♦ – a trump. David plays 7♣. Clara's J♦ wins the trick with 4 + 11 + 2 + 0 = 17 card points.

Example: Later Ben leads 7♥. That is a trump, so everyone must play a trump. David has no Hearts but holds Q♠ – he must play it, and it wins the trick.

Scoring

After 8 tricks each side counts its card points:

• 61 or more for the declarer's side: the declarer wins. At 60 the declarer loses.
• Schneider: the losing side has 30 or fewer (to escape, the declarer's side needs 31, the defenders 30).
• Schwarz: the losing side won no trick at all.
• Laufende ("runners"): the highest trumps in an unbroken row, starting with Q♣, held by one side – counted from 3 in a Sauspiel or Solo (Q♣ Q♠ Q♥) and from 2 in a Wenz (J♣ J♠). They pay extra whether the declarer's side wins or loses, and the defenders can have them too.

Schafkopf is traditionally played for small money. The tariff is agreed at the table; a common one in cents:

In a Sauspiel each loser pays the value to one winner. In a Solo or Wenz the declarer receives the value from each of the three defenders – or pays it to each of them.

Example: Anna calls the A♦; Ben holds it. Anna has Q♣ and Q♥, Ben has Q♠ – together they hold the top three trumps, but not Q♦: 3 Laufende. They take 95 card points; the defenders have 25, so they are Schneider. Value: 10 + 10 (Schneider) + 3 × 10 (Laufende) = 50 cents. Clara pays 50 to Anna, David pays 50 to Ben.

In a Solo with the same result, Anna would get 50 + 10 + 30 = 90 cents from each of the three others.

Winning the game

There is no fixed end. Play a set number of rounds (in a round everyone deals once) or an agreed time. Whoever has won the most money or points at the end is the winner.

Tips for beginners

• Count trumps. 14 trumps are in play in a Sauspiel. Keep track of which Queens and Jacks are gone.
• Call a short suit. Call the Ace of a suit where you hold only one card – then you can soon trump that suit yourself.
• Defenders: lead the called suit. It forces the partner to reveal themselves, and the Ace may be trumped.
• Give points to your partner. When your partner is sure to win a trick, play an Ace or 10 on it (schmieren).
• Solo only with a strong hand: at least six trumps including high Queens, or a Wenz with two Jacks and long plain suits.

Variants

All of these are optional – agree on them before the game.

• Ramsch: if everyone passes, the hand is played with the Sauspiel trumps, everyone for themselves. The player with the most card points loses and pays each other player 10; a player who won no trick is paid double.
• Kurze Karte: take out the 7s and 8s – 24 cards, 6 each. Popular in the Upper Palatinate and Upper Franconia.
• Hochzeit ("wedding"): a player with only one trump offers it face down. The first player who accepts takes it, gives back a non-trump card, and the two play together without a called Ace.
• Geier: like a Wenz, but only the four Queens are trumps.
• Farbwenz: the Jacks plus a chosen suit are trumps (Queens are plain cards).
• Klopfen, Kontra and Re: after the first four cards, a player may knock to double the value. A defender may say Kontra ("Stoß") until the second card of the first trick is played; the declarer's side may answer Re. Each doubles the value.
• Stock: when everyone passes, each player pays into a pot, which goes to the next side to win a game.